Joining the ACL Club

Hi… I hope everyone is as excited as I am to be able to be a part of something so special, supporting TEAM USA in the Olympics.

After not being able to play in the Olympics, the second best thing is being part of this team and cheering them on.

This is where the ACL club comes in…

For anyone who doesn’t know the last couple months have been very interesting. I wish I had this great story to tell everyone about how I joined the ACL Club but I don’t. If you haven’t already noticed, I made up the ACL Club. Once you tear your ACL, you are part of this club and you will understand why you are part of this. Unfortunately my teammate Catherine Whitehill is part of this club as well. We give each other support and advice!

At our training camp on May 22nd at the Home Depot Center, I tore my left ACL while marking one of my teammates. Unfortunately I dove one way and wanted to go back another way. That’s when it happened, accompanied by a popping noise I will never forget, nor will anyone else that heard it. It didn’t swell and it didn’t hurt, this was the worst part. I got carried off of the field and with all the support of my teammates stayed positive until an MRI the next day confirmed the diagnose - a torn ACL. My doctor told me that the good news was that I didn’t tear anything else in my knee. Well that is when my life changed a bit and the waiting game began.

I didn’t know where to start. I knew the best place to go was to my teammates and former teammates to find answers and opinions.

For anyone who is part of the ACL Club, they know what I mean. There are so many different types of surgeries, surgeons and procedures out there. I decided to go all out and have a double whammy surgery.

A look at my leg post-surgery.

I had my left ACL repaired as well as my left ankle reconstructed on June 3 in Northern California with Dr. Dillingham. I was on crutches for six weeks, two of those I was only in a knee brace. The last four weeks I had a very pretty purple cast on. When the six weeks were over, I felt like a whole new woman!! The fact that I was healthy and could walk again made me appreciate all the little things that I had taken for granted.

I started going to rehab two days after my ACL/ankle surgery, I guess that is not normal because my therapist thought I was crazy. I didn’t care; I was determined to be on my road to recovery. For the next six weeks, I went to rehab three times a week. Although I couldn’t do a whole lot, I still worked very hard on keeping my quad as strong as I possibly could. I would go down to the beach or walk in the mall to get exercise on my crutches. Yes, people did stare at me!

The last few weeks have been great in rehab and I feel awesome. My knee and ankle are better than ever and I am doing the elliptical and feel great! My therapist, Omi Iwasaki, is awesome and challenges me every day. I just can’t believe how fast and how great I have healed and recovered so far. I am very anxious for the day to come when I can run again (I think I am pretty close). My new and exciting goal is to play in WPS and I can’t wait!!!